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IN CONFIRMATION OF THE GENUS OWENIA 

 SO-CALLED. 



By C. W. De Vis, M.A., Corr. Mem. 



(Plate xiii.) 



Some two years ago a few fossil bones were sent to me from 

 the town of Warwick, Queensland. Unimportant in themselves 

 they begot the hope that others would follow, but the hope proved 

 futile, as no one on the spot was sufficiently interested in such 

 matters to look for more. As it seemed important to ascertain 

 whether the neighbourhood were indeed fossiliferous, Mr. H. Hurst 

 was commissioned in August last to repair to the district and 

 institute a careful search. This he did. The first fruits of an 

 otherwise scanty ingathering were a Diprotodon skull in fragments, 

 and the greater part of a large mandible in fairly sound condition. 

 The latter at once met with a hearty recognition; its incisors and 

 premolars were those of the genus to which the name Owenia had 

 been assigned. 



The discovery of a second species of the genus is opportune, 

 inasmuch as it establishes a validity which has been denied, and 

 offers for reconsideration a name which is undeniably liable to 

 extinction. Suggested by a strong desire to commemorate, in even 

 so feeble a fashion, the labours of the first interpreter of the 

 marsupiate fossils of Australia, the name was proposed in spite 

 of its declared preoccupation in sundry genera of recent inverte- 

 brates. The hope was cherished that since its appropriation to an 

 extinct mammalian genus would cause little or no inconvenience, 

 it might be allowed to pass current. But sentiment will evidently 

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